Faces of Death (1978)

A collection of death scenes, ranging from TV-material to home-made super-8 movies The common factor is death by some means.

Director:

John Alan Schwartz

Writer:

John Alan Schwartz

Stars:

Michael Carr, Samuel Berkowitz, Mary Ellen Brighton

Cast

Credited cast:
Michael Carr	...	Dr. Francis B. Gröss
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Samuel Berkowitz	...	Himself; Cryogenics patient
Mary Ellen Brighton	...	Herself; suicide victim shown jumping out of a window
Thomas Noguchi	...	Himself

Storyline

A 'mockumentary' hosted by Dr. Francis B. Gross, a coroner. He is trying to show you the different 'faces' of people while dying. There are faked scenes of people getting killed intermixed with footage of real accidents. There are executions by decapitation (in an unknown Arab country) and the electric chair. One scene shows a group of tourists in Egypt smashing a monkey's head while still alive and eating its brains. There are shots of animals eating people and satanic orgies using dead bodies. There is a segment that deals with an alligator that accidentally entered 'residential' waters. The local warden goes in his boat to get the crocodile back into the sea when he accidentally falls over and becomes gator bait. The film ends with newsreel footage of people jumping off buildings and major accidents.

---

Plot Keywords:

death | execution | brain | mockumentary | alligator | 

---

Taglines:

Banned in 46 Countries!

---

Genres:

Documentary | Horror

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Gorgon Video

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

10 November 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Original Faces of Death

Filming Locations:

Guanajuato, Mexico

Box Office

Budget:

$450,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

F.O.D. Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

One sequence involves cryogenic patient Samuel Berkowitz, who was frozen in July 1978 and stored in northern California. The relatives who were funding the suspension began to lose interest and/or wherewithal, an offer was made to continue the suspension as a neuro (head-only) free of charge, but it was turned down. Instead in October 1983 they had Berkowitz thawed, submerged in formaldehyde, given a proper funeral and buried. No attempt was made specifically to preserve the brain.

---

Goofs

Numerous continuity and logic errors, casting doubt on the validity of the movie's claim to be authentic.

---

Quotes

Dr. Francis B. Gröss: Do the animals know they are going to die? The men who kill them claim they don't. But when the machinery begins to rumble and the conveyor belts start to roll, sounds that expedite death are heard by animal and man alike.

---

Crazy Credits

At the end of the film, the credits say "Special thanks to the mummies of Guanajuato, Mexico"

---

Connections

Referenced in Weird N.J. (1999)

---

Soundtracks

"Burning Soul"
Written by Gene Kauer
Performed by Gene Kauer

User Reviews

Hard to defend and hard to dismiss...

Most people's objections to FACES OF DEATH seem to stem from the fact that the film-makers were obviously straddling the line between documentary and exploitation about as expertly as an extremely drunk driver doing the straight line test. Horribly real scenes are cut and spliced with obvious fakes, cheesy gore effects are thrown together with genuine TV footage of disembodied limbs and innards, disturbing sequences are set to inappropriate library music like Dixieland jazz or slapstick tunes. But let's face up to an uncomfortable fact. FACES OF DEATH was nothing if not trendsetting. These days, 'reality' TV shows, including British television's long-running CRIMEWATCH UK, think nothing of running dopey reconstructions alongside unsettling closed-circuit television footage and grisly crime scene photographs. This make-do-and-mend ethic is at the heart of this film, only the makers draw their own boundaries and are a lot more economical with the truth. If the opening scenes of open-heart surgery give you the dry heaves, switch off, because things get worse. We see the workings of a slaughterhouse, a seal cull, a bullfight, a chicken decapitation, the infamous (but fake) monkey brains sequence, suicide leapers, executions, rotting cadavers, post-mortems, a siege situation...you get the idea. It's all exploitative, certainly, but if your tastes run to this kind of thing - and I watched this film for the exact same reason that I watched John Waters' PINK FLAMINGOS as a teenager, to face my fear of the gross and disgusting, to experience the exhilaration of burying myself in someone else's nightmare and realizing the world won't come crashing down about my ears after all - then FACES OF DEATH should certainly satisfy your cravings. It may even change your perceptions about a few things. It's certainly bizarrely uplifting, and actually manages to be somewhat ambitious in the sheer scope of its treatment of (human, animal, environmental, moralistic, ethical) death. Approach with caution.